The Turkish Cosmopolitan magazine as translation: an analysis of representations of women

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the usage of the representations of women in the famous women’s magazine Cosmopolitan, which has been published since the end of the nineteenth century and evolved into a women’s magazine in the United States and its Turkish edition which has been published in Turkey since 1992. The source magazine’s target reader can be depicted as young, professional women who care for her career and sexual life. The Turkish Cosmopolitan addresses a similar profile. However, it is assumed that the representations which are used in Turkish Cosmopolitan magazine are somewhat different from the representations used in the source magazine. Thus, comparing and contrasting Turkish Cosmopolitan with the source magazine, the study explores the differences between the two magazines and considers that these different representations may be the indicator of the differences between the Turkish and American cultures. It is argued that translation plays a crucial role in constructing new representations and acts as a manipulative tool. Consequently, throughout the thesis, the research intends to answer the questions such as how does the source magazine present the representations of women? To what degree are the elements of these representations conveyed to the target magazine? What is the role of translation in recreating representations of women in the target magazine? Why do these differences exist?